The Blog

When Simone crosses the threshold into the Idaho house—this novel is full of doors both metaphorical and physical that arrange and filter how she encounters her memories, her choices, her wishes, her beliefs—she finds more than painful memories waiting. The presence there shifts between beauty and terror, invitation and threat. Is it her own mind fracturing under pressure, or is it something real, something outside herself? Is the presence formed from guilt, sadness, love, or evil? The novel’s answers are winding and complicated, reminding us that the spiritual realm is and not always as it seems, that our choices have consequences outside the bounds of ourselves, and that we are never as alone (or as autonomous) as we may think or feel.

Author Emily Cavins draws us into Kateri’s life with depth, respect, and insight, revealing a woman who found beauty in great suffering and God’s grace in the creation she so dearly loved and revered. 

In the case of Mary, who brings all our prayers to God and is a stronger intercessor than all the other saints and angels combined, there is actually a Latin phrase to keep in mind: De Maria numquam satis. Literally translated, it means “Of Mary, [there is] never enough.”

Each author takes a different entry point to the same mystery: God entering our world, our time, our personal lives, for the sake of each of us. Which book will you choose this Advent?

Behold the Wonder draws on the traditions of lectio divina, the slow, reflective reading of Scripture, and visio divina, a prayerful engagement with sacred art, to lead you through Advent with Mary.